It’s big kind of a deal
As Canucks and Senators face off at B.C. Place, we present fascinating facts and stories of the 1915 Stanley Cup win that inspired the game
There is no Canucks rivalry with the Ottawa Senators, B.C. Place struggles to compare with such venerable venues as Yankee Stadium or Soldier Field, and possible rain may close the roof, making the Heritage Classic an indoor “outdoor” game.
It’s a tough act to follow, when the NHL sold out and generated huge buzz from the previous five such indoor games this season.
The Vancouver game on Sunday follows those at 115,000-seat Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor (the annual Winter Classic), two at Yankee Stadium in New York, one at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles and one at Soldier Field in Chicago. The Michigan game featured a blizzard, while the one in L.A. was played in 17 C and sunshine.
That’s a pretty cool experience to offer fans — along with live bands playing during the intermission and other pomp and circumstance — and apparently it’s enough to make up for the fact they’re barely able to see the game from such a viewing distance.
The Vancouver game is an obvious echo of the 1915 pre-NHL Stanley Cup final, when the Vancouver Millionaires defeated the Ottawa Senators to bring the Cup here for the first and only time.
Both the Canucks and Senators will wear “throwback” uniforms for the game. The Canucks acquired the rights to the Millionaires logo in 2011 and have already worn the uniform in a league game last March. (Yes, you can buy one at the game.)
Still, the Canucks and the current Senators have no link to those pre-NHL teams. They are far from marquee teams — both are struggling to make the playoffs — and have little current history between them.
Tickets, which are priced from $104.40 to $324.70, have been a slog to sell, but the NHL expects a full house of 52,000-plus for the game.
So what does being at the game mean to Vancouver fans? Yes, you’ll be getting your best views of the game on the B.C. Place Stadium video board. But there’s the appeal of being part of a unique event that won’t likely be back here for a long time, if ever.
That’s a big difference from 99 years ago — those days of hockey innocence when the lightning-fast Fred (Cyclone) Taylor led a star-studded Millionaires team to a three-game sweep over the roughhousing eastern champs from Ottawa.
In those days, ice hockey was a new spectator sport on the temperate West Coast and league and team owners Frank and Lester Patrick had built 10,500-seat Denman Arena in 1911 — the first artificial ice rink in Canada — to make it happen.
The team’s public perception wasn’t anything like it was today. Sure, there were some hockeycrazed fans, but the Millionaires’ Cup win didn’t even make the front page of the papers the next day.
It’s a long-ago story about a very different game of hockey in a very different time — but it may be worth pondering for a few moments today if you’re watching the Heritage Classic.